First for some positive news.A revision of my right side implant has been approved by ACC and surgery is booked at Gillies hospital in Epsom for Monday 16th March. It is my first which was implanted on April 20th 2008. Following Switch-On my “hearing” experiences on this side have been many and varied. From the outset I experienced a full compliment of 22 electrodes and quickly began to interpret sounds. I was cautioned that the road ahead would be a journey, not a destination and full integration of my implant could be up to two years. It wasn't long however and gradually I began to lose “volume”
Monday January 12th- Six month review 2nd implant (Left side)
Monday again found us at the cochlear clinic at the Auckland University School of Population Health. I had been expierencing trouble with too much noise, less definition and something was hurting my head. Ellen altered the C levels and found the T levels had moved up by 14 points. I went away a happy chap with firm encouragement from Gayle to begin telephone learning exercises. My Map was good when we went up North with two families and seven kids! We enjoyed the sites and walks on the beach. A big hilight was a bus trip up 90 Mile beach (which is in fact only 65) . Carmen, the other adults and the kids went for a fast toboggan down the Enormous sand dunes then back into the bus for the last few miles north all the way to the Cape Reinga Light House. I slept on the way back from the light house to be woken to have a monster ice cream at a little place consisting of a small shop (massive ice creams!) a church and a small school.
Wednesday 4th February - A week on a road to despair.
For almost a whole week prior to Waitangi day holiday I began to experience worse than normal headaches, verging on extreme. My tinnitus was totally out of control The loud factory in my head never closed for the holiday break they left the 737 engine on full throttle, add to that crashing and a banging noise like a builder hammering in iron to a roof and I was afraid and wondered if I could cope any longer. Carmen phoned the clinic and the got me an appointment the very next day. Ellen found my T levels had moved another 6 points and also turned off electrode #3. I also asked for my volume control range to be increased to 60% of my MAP. My dynamic range is now just 30 points and I'm coping much better.
The implant team are just wonderful and there when we really need them. I think they are the best.
Some days I just can't get much definition at all due to my tinnitus being so loud. I increase my processor volume to over ride the tinnitus buy then I feel like my brains are going to pop!
Auditory Accessories, Bluetooth, Mp3 etc
In my last post I mentioned the lack of audio accessories for cochlear implants compared to those available for wearers of hearing aids. I'm interested to know what solutions the other bi-lateral users have found suits them best for listening to music or watching a movie at home. I wrote to a CI forum but find my frustration in this department concurs with most other bi-lateral recipients.
My feeling is that while Cochlear have helped us so much, their focus for connecting to audio devices seems to be for single implants, rather that a stereo, or bi-aural experience.
The seems to have a fixation with hooking “things” to our ears. There are many “ear hooks” that provide a quality auditory simulation while using the Teli-Coil setting on my processor. But to use these devices as well as the large Nucleus Freedom Implant Processors, then we would need ears that were more like Dobby, Harry Potters house elf! I'm not quite ready for that.
I have researched and tried a Bluetooth neck loop such as the Artone Bluetooth . http://www.tecear.com/Artone-Bluetooth-Loopset.htm This works well for phone use or bluetooth from my computer etc. However unfortunately it has more limitations than I imagined. When I receive Bluetooth from my computer or similar the Bluetooth connection overrides any other audio out-put such as std head phones with 3.5mm jack connection or in-built computer speakers. That means I'm Nigel no-mates when I'm listening as I cut everyone else out so they feel deaf!
I have done some more looking and found the following link, again for the beetle H2ST. http://www.tecear.com/Beetle_H2ST.htm I have found a .Pd f user manual on the same page.
Page 28 onwards for the H2ST. It comprises of a Bluetooth unit and a neck loop which plugs into the bottom of it via a std 3.5mm jack connection. This should give me the best of both worlds?
I also tried a standard neck loop complete with 3.5mm jack for MP3, computers or similar devices. However it never had a microphone for use with a telephone. I tried listening and watching a movie which to my surprise worked very well. So maybe I need to be satisfied with just a standard induction neck loop that will help me to listen to movies. with the family and I'm hoping am MP3 may assist with tinnitus by providing a decisive auditory nerve stimulation. I have a significant problem with Tinnitus and feel a bi-aural sound approach would be best.
In the mean time I'm trying not to thing about surgery, but looking forward to another Switch-On and to beginning to listen on that side all over again.
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A revision of my right side implant has been approved by ACC and surgery is booked at Gillies hospital in Epsom for Monday 16th March. It is my first which was implanted on April 20th 2008. Following Switch-On my “hearing” experiences on this side have been many and varied. From the outset I experienced a full compliment of 22 electrodes and quickly began to interpret sounds. I was cautioned that the road ahead would be a journey, not a destination and full integration of my implant could be up to two years. It wasn't long however and gradually I began to lose “volume”
Monday January 12th- Six month review 2nd implant (Left side)
Monday again found us at the cochlear clinic at the Auckland University School of Population Health. I had been expierencing trouble with too much noise, less definition and something was hurting my head. Ellen altered the C levels and found the T levels had moved up by 14 points. I went away a happy chap with firm encouragement from Gayle to begin telephone learning exercises. My Map was good when we went up North with two families and seven kids! We enjoyed the sites and walks on the beach. A big hilight was a bus trip up 90 Mile beach (which is in fact only 65) . Carmen, the other adults and the kids went for a fast toboggan down the Enormous sand dunes then back into the bus for the last few miles north all the way to the Cape Reinga Light House. I slept on the way back from the light house to be woken to have a monster ice cream at a little place consisting of a small shop (massive ice creams!) a church and a small school.
Wednesday 4th February - A week on a road to despair.
For almost a whole week prior to Waitangi day holiday I began to experience worse than normal headaches, verging on extreme. My tinnitus was totally out of control The loud factory in my head never closed for the holiday break they left the 737 engine on full throttle, add to that crashing and a banging noise like a builder hammering in iron to a roof and I was afraid and wondered if I could cope any longer. Carmen phoned the clinic and the got me an appointment the very next day. Ellen found my T levels had moved another 6 points and also turned off electrode #3. I also asked for my volume control range to be increased to 60% of my MAP. My dynamic range is now just 30 points and I'm coping much better.
The implant team are just wonderful and there when we really need them. I think they are the best.
Some days I just can't get much definition at all due to my tinnitus being so loud. I increase my processor volume to over ride the tinnitus buy then I feel like my brains are going to pop!
Auditory Accessories, Bluetooth, Mp3 etc
In my last post I mentioned the lack of audio accessories for cochlear implants compared to those available for wearers of hearing aids. I'm interested to know what solutions the other bi-lateral users have found suits them best for listening to music or watching a movie at home. I wrote to a CI forum but find my frustration in this department concurs with most other bi-lateral recipients.
My feeling is that while Cochlear have helped us so much, their focus for connecting to audio devices seems to be for single implants, rather that a stereo, or bi-aural experience.
The seems to have a fixation with hooking “things” to our ears. There are many “ear hooks” that provide a quality auditory simulation while using the Teli-Coil setting on my processor. But to use these devices as well as the large Nucleus Freedom Implant Processors, then we would need ears that were more like Dobby, Harry Potters house elf! I'm not quite ready for that.
I have researched and tried a Bluetooth neck loop such as the Artone Bluetooth . http://www.tecear.com/Artone-Bluetooth-Loopset.htm This works well for phone use or bluetooth from my computer etc. However unfortunately it has more limitations than I imagined. When I receive Bluetooth from my computer or similar the Bluetooth connection overrides any other audio out-put such as std head phones with 3.5mm jack connection or in-built computer speakers. That means I'm Nigel no-mates when I'm listening as I cut everyone else out so they feel deaf!
I have done some more looking and found the following link, again for the beetle H2ST. http://www.tecear.com/Beetle_H2ST.htm I have found a .Pd f user manual on the same page.
Page 28 onwards for the H2ST. It comprises of a Bluetooth unit and a neck loop which plugs into the bottom of it via a std 3.5mm jack connection. This should give me the best of both worlds?
I also tried a standard neck loop complete with 3.5mm jack for MP3, computers or similar devices. However it never had a microphone for use with a telephone. I tried listening and watching a movie which to my surprise worked very well. So maybe I need to be satisfied with just a standard induction neck loop that will help me to listen to movies. with the family and I'm hoping am MP3 may assist with tinnitus by providing a decisive auditory nerve stimulation. I have a significant problem with Tinnitus and feel a bi-aural sound approach would be best.
In the mean time I'm trying not to thing about surgery, but looking forward to another Switch-On and to beginning to listen on that side all over again.